


Polaroids and Memories

by SRbackwards



Series: Polaroids and Memories [1]
Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Alternate Universe, Ex-Convict AU, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, M/M, Mutual Pining, Roommates, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-09
Updated: 2016-01-09
Packaged: 2018-05-12 16:43:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5673088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SRbackwards/pseuds/SRbackwards
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jason had no idea what he was in for. His first thought when he heard the doorbell was that he was too tired for this. </p><p>Or</p><p>In which Chad Gable has just got out of prison and needs a place to stay, and Jason Jordan just happens to have a spare room.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Polaroids and Memories

**Author's Note:**

> This one has been bouncing around in my brain for a while, and it's the longest fic I've ever written. It's late and I'm tired, so hopefully this isn't riddled with errors. I hope you enjoy it. 
> 
> (I wrote this because there is hardly any J.J./Gable fanfic out there, and I think that's a travesty)

The funny thing about fate is that you never know what’s going to be important in the long run. Something as innocuous and everyday as, say, a knock on the door can change your life forever.

Jason had no idea what he was in for. His first thought when he heard the doorbell was that he was too tired for this.

“Yeah?” he said into the intercom system, maybe expecting his elderly neighbour to have forgotten her keys again. He certainly wasn’t expecting this.

“Is this Jason Jordan?” came the voice through the speaker.

“Um… yeah? Who is this?”

“My name is Chad Gable. I heard you had a spare bedroom?”

“Look, man, I don’t know where you heard that but I’m not in the habit of letting out my apartment to strangers, so…” He was half a second away from taking his finger off the intercom button when the voice through the speaker begged him to wait, to let him explain.

It was late February, early evening, and he’d been home barely twenty minutes. He just wanted to sit down for a little while before he had to get on with studying. Was that too much to ask?

“I’m friends with your brother,” said Chad Gable.

Jason just wanted to lie down. Apparently it was too much to ask. Sighing, he let him in.

Jason wasn’t entirely sure what the etiquette was for this kind of situation. When Gable turned up on his doorstep, he didn’t even know how to greet him. Gable spoke first.

“Hi,” he said, a little awkwardly. Then he laughed. Then he stopped laughing, when he realised that Jason wasn’t laughing.

Gable was considerably shorter than him, and clutching at the strap of a medium sized backpack that hung from one shoulder. His awkward laugh had fallen back into a nervous smile.

“… Hi… What do… what can… Can I help you?” Jason eventually settled on.

“Your brother told me to look you up when I got out… that you’d be willing to put me up for a while?”

“Out…” said Jason slowly, and although it wasn’t a question, Gable clearly took it to be one.

“Of prison,” he said, matter-of-factly.

“I knew what you meant. And he said… that I’d be willing to put you up?”

“He said you had a spare room. And that you’re a good guy. And look, cards on the table, I don’t have any money at the moment, but I swear I’m good for it.”

“So what you’re saying is… you want me to let you stay in _my_ apartment, rent-free?”

“Just for a little while. While I get myself back on my feet. And I’ll pay you back, eventually.”

“And I should say yes, why?”

Gable let his backpack fall to the floor beside him, resting it against the door frame. Jason didn’t miss the way that he wavered slightly on his feet at the motion, and Jason wavered slightly in his conviction.

“Look, man. I don’t have a family that I can go back to. I can’t go back to where I was before I went to prison. I’m trying to make a new life for myself. I just need a place to stay for a few weeks. Please.” Gable looked up at him with a pained expression that was probably all for show, but Jason was a sucker for a sob story, and found himself relenting anyway.

“Okay, okay. You can stay for a couple of weeks. Maximum. I have exams coming up and I don’t need anything leeching up more of my time. Understood?”

“Of course man, I’ll keep to myself. Thank you so much.” Jason turned to lead the way to the spare bedroom, but Gable continued talking, “Man, your brother said you were a good guy but he never mentioned you were so…”

Self-consciously, Jason spun back around to find Gable’s eyes guiltily darting back up to meet his. “ _What?_ ”

“Nothing… nothing…” said Gable, with a winning smile, picking up his backpack and closing the front door behind him.

Jason decided that ignoring him was probably the best course of action. He opened the door to the guest bedroom. “This is your room, for the time being, I guess. Everything else is pretty self-explanatory. Kitchen, bathroom, living room… balcony.” He gestured vaguely at each in turn, although he was sure it was obvious.

“Honestly man,” said Gable, sidling past him into the bedroom with his bag clutched to his chest, “you have no idea how much I appreciate this. I’d be out on the street if it wasn’t for you. Or worse.”

A little curiosity was piqued at that, and it almost tempted Jason to ask what worse meant to Gable, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. He thought Gable would probably tell him if he did ask. It didn’t seem right to ask in any case.

When Gable disappeared behind the closed door of his new bedroom, Jason took to the couch again, satisfied that it was still warm. It hadn’t taken that long after all. He closed his eyes.

The next thing he knew, the room was only lit by the sliver of light from under the door of the spare bedroom, and he jolted upright. The cushion he’d been clutching to his chest fell to his lap. Something felt wrong, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

It was dark, but the light confused him. He pushed himself up onto unsteady legs to investigate, but at that moment, the door to the spare room opened, and Gable stood silhouetted in the doorway. _Oh right. Gable._

“Oh hey, you’re awake. I didn’t want to disturb you.”

Jason dropped the cushion he realised he was still holding against his stomach. “What time is it?”

“Like ten-thirty. You looked like you needed the sleep.”

Jason rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand. “Yeah…”

“I hope I’m not overstepping my bounds here,” Gable began, cautiously. Jason was apprehensive.  “But… Why _do_ you have a spare bedroom? I can’t imagine you’re rolling in cash… being in college and all… and well, I know your brother, which means I know your background too. Kinda. I know you’re not from a family of millionaires, at least.”

Fixing Gable with a level stare to shut him up, Jason considered his answer. “I have a job. I can cover rent, just about. I have a partial scholarship. I did have a roommate, which made things a lot easier. You know, one that actually _paid_ his share of the rent.”

Gable held up his hands in protest, “I told you I’m good for it.”

“Right… right…”

“So… what happened? To you roommate, I mean.”

“To Tye? I don’t know, man. We fell out. Started fighting a lot. It became unbearable to live with him. In the end I told him he had to leave or I would. He left. And I think we’re both a lot better off because of it, honestly. I mean, rent has been a little harder to cover, but my landlord, Regal, is a good guy.” Jason looked down at his hands, and then back up at where Gable was watching him with an intent expression. There was a moment of silence.

 “You hungry? You slept through what most people would consider to be dinner time.”

“A little, yeah. I… Actually yeah, I am.” Jason hadn’t noticed until Gable mentioned it, but now he had, his stomach felt hollow.

“You wanna get takeout?”

“That… yeah, okay.”

*

Chad told Jason early on that they’d be a good fit, and as reluctant as Jason was to admit that he was right about anything at first, he was certainly right about that.

There were a few rocky patches in the first couple of weeks, like when Chad kept leaving all his towels lying around – seriously, _who has that many towels_?

Jason liked to keep to himself, and Chad liked to talk to him, which made for some difficulties. Although it wasn’t easy in the beginning, it was probably a good thing, because after a little while, Jason realised that he liked to talk to Chad too.

Between college and work and football practise, Jason didn’t have much time for socialising. It kinda made for a nice change, having someone to talk to when he got home.

He’d always had trouble staying out of his own head, and Tye Dillinger had never helped with that. Tye would hype him up to drop him down, and leave him hanging. He’d ignore him for days at a time until Jason thought he might really be going crazy. Then he’d drag him out to some seedy bar to try and get him to let off some steam, and Jason would curse him for days. It was always all one thing or entirely another with him. Jason Jordan grew to hate Tye Dillinger.

Gable, though, Gable was different. Gable let him get on with his own thing, and Jason had never been more grateful for anything in his life. He was there before he left in the morning, and when he got back in the evening. In fact, Jason spent so much time out of the house these days that he wasn’t even sure what it was that Chad did all day. Whatever it was, it kept him occupied.

And sure, money wasn’t as bountiful as he’d hoped it would be at this stage, but he could afford rent, and he could afford food, and for the time being, that was all that really mattered.

*

When he came home one day after a full day of classes and then football practise, Jason didn’t even bother to take off his shoes before he face-planted onto the couch. He’d worked a gruelling double shift the night before, so it was really no wonder that he was passed out only moments after his gym bag hit the floor beside him.

Hours later, he awoke thinking that he was maybe developing a bit of a habit. His second thought was that he hadn’t slept so well in months. He stretched, pressing his shoulders and feet further into the couch and arching his back, groaning as a wave of pleasure/pain rippled through his muscles.

When he came back down with a thump, the blanket he hadn’t noticed was covering him slipped down off his chest, and he stared at it for a moment. Sitting up, he pulled the blanket aside and dropped it onto the bare floor between the couch and the coffee table. He found his socked feet staring back at him from the other end of the couch. He had _definitely_ been wearing shoes when he’d fallen asleep.

He stood, feeling less tired than he’d felt since he’d started college, and found his shoes, arranged neatly by the front door. A smile crawled its way up from his insides, and he struggled to suppress it. It was even harder when he got to the kitchen, and found Gable there, rummaging through the fridge.

“Oh, hey, you’re up,” said Gable with a grin, but Jason was momentarily distracted by sound of the washing machine running. There, beside it, was his gym bag. He took a couple of long strides and picked up the bag, and found it was empty. The washing machine was running. His gym bag was empty. He felt a prickle of warmth in his stomach.

“Sleep well?” asked Gable, and when Jason turned to meet his eyes, he found him chuckling softly.

“Yeah… better than I thought was possible, actually.”

“Good,” said Gable quietly.

Maybe keeping Gable around for a little while longer wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Jason could cover rent. Everything else could wait. Gable had made him a promise, anyway.

*

“You need to take a break.”

Jason tried to protest as the textbook was pried out of his hands, but when Gable grabbed one wrist to pull him to his feet, he felt the words die halfway out of his mouth. Maybe he could afford to take a short break. Just a little one.

“Come on. Dinner. You need to eat something. Real food, that is.”

Jason made a sort of disgruntled noise, but allowed himself to be half-dragged into the kitchen and pushed into one of the chairs by the little table against the wall. He made the another annoyed sound when a plate of something warm and aromatic was pushed in front of him, but picked up his fork anyway.

“Eat. You’re a freakin’ athlete J.J., don’t they teach that you’ve got to eat good?”

“No time,” grumbled Jason through a mouthful of lasagne. “Too much to do.”

“And that’s why _I_ cooked dinner. It’s the least I could do really,” said Gable, dropping into the seat opposite him and nudging Jason’s foot with his own.

He wanted to thank him, but as he swallowed his mouthful of food, the words were swallowed with it. Jason chewed slowly, because although he might be (only semi-voluntarily) giving himself this break, it was the only break he was gonna get, so he might as well savour it.

“Tell you what. If you finish your lasagne, I’ll help you study. We can make flashcards and shit. My mom used to-” Gable cut himself off. When Jason looked at him, he was looking down at the table. Jason put down his fork in a tacit invitation for him to continue, and Gable finally looked up again.

“When I was at school, my mom used to cook me my favourite meal if I studied for long enough. She’d help me make the flashcards, too. So I guess this… is… kinda like the opposite of that. I’ll help you study if you eat the food I cooked for you.” Chad pressed his palms flat on the table. Jason didn’t miss the way his fingers were trembling.

“Hey…” he said softly. “Thank you… for all of this, man. Thank you so much.” He’d found the words, but he wasn’t just thanking him for the dinner.

When Chad met his eyes again, he was grinning.

And honestly, Gable was a good study partner, just like he was a good roommate. Gable liked to take photographs with a fancy camera that he’d gotten from God knows where, and as much as Jason would glare down the lens when it was pointed at his face, there was something so wholesome about Gable’s demeanour that he couldn’t bring himself to mind. By now, Gable must’ve had a lot of photos of Jason scowling at the camera, a textbook in front of him and flashcards spread all over the table.

But he was a good study partner. So that’s why Jason kept him around. It had nothing to do with all the little things that Jason had started to notice about him. Nothing to do with the way he would flick his hair when it was getting in his face, in a way far more flamboyant than was necessary; or that smile he seemed to have reserved for the times when he was trying to get Jason to try something new; or the way he kept that stupid towel with his name on it around at all times. Jason would sometimes watch him with that towel, scrunching it up into the smallest volume possible in his clenched fists. He would stare and stare at his own hands until he realised that Jason was watching him, and then he would sling the towel over his shoulder and smile as if he hadn’t been gritting his teeth ten seconds before.

It had nothing to do with the way that Jason just couldn’t take his eyes off of him sometimes, like every time Jason would wake up to find Gable doing his morning stretches in the living room, and just couldn’t help but think about how he could’ve driven halfway across the grand canyon on his bridge. He couldn’t help but think about how he just wanted to lay down on top of him, but that he’d never even admit to himself. Like every time he found himself staring at the pretty v of his hipbones, and the way his thighs flared out from his hips when he was wearing tight workout gear. It had nothing to do with that.

Sometimes, J.J. would let himself stare. In the few moments of absolute silence when Gable would bridge up in the morning, or when he’d be so engrossed in whatever shitty movie was playing on the TV and he didn’t notice Jason’s eyes on him, or the rare occasions where the weather was good and they’d go to the park, and Gable would lay down in the grass and close his eyes for just a few minutes – only then. Only then could he let himself stare.

J.J. didn’t keep Gable around because of the soft serenity of his face when his eyes were closed.

It had nothing to do with how uninhibited Gable was in his own staring. He didn’t seem to care at all when Jason caught him watching him; he’d just grin and tell Jason to continue whatever it was he was doing. Jason envied him, at least in that respect.

But there were other things that Jason was starting to notice about his roommate. He noticed things that he didn’t envy at all, like the way his hands would shake when he was concentrating too hard on one thing, the twitch in his fingers, the way he would drag his chewed up fingernails along his own arms, as if fighting an itch that couldn’t be scratched. Sometimes, he would hear the television on at 3am, and find Gable on the couch, shaking, hands curled into fists. Jason never knew what to do, so he would go back to bed, and both of them would pretend that Gable didn’t know that he’d been watching him from the doorway.

The longer Chad lived with him, the more Jason noticed that the little bad things seemed to come and go. Sometimes there’d be weeks between the nights where Gable wouldn’t sleep, and sometimes those nights would take up a whole week. Jason wanted to believe that things were getting better, albeit slowly, and maybe he was right. Maybe there was a general upwards trend in Gable’s moods. Maybe the bad times were getting less and less. In the end, it didn’t matter.

One evening after a long day, Jason came home with the daily grind setting his shoulders stiffer, lower than usual. He dumped his textbooks on the coffee table and threw his bag into a far corner. Sitting down, he stared at his shoes, trying to muster the motivation to take them off. Eventually, he gave up, dropping his head into his heads and just resting face against his palms.

He heard the sound of a door opening, but didn’t move until felt another person’s weight drop down on the couch beside him.

“Hey… you wanna watch a movie or something?”

Jason wanted to say that he couldn’t, he had work to do, he didn’t have time, but when he looked up at Chad’s earnest expression, he couldn’t say no.

They ended up watching some crappy, made-for-TV movie with more explosions than dialogue, and Jason was more than happy when they gave up halfway through to talk about movies they actually liked instead. Anyway, he’d spent more time watching the calm, precise rise and fall of Chad’s chest. He looked better. He was a lot less pale than he’d been, and the dark circles that were usually a permanent fixture under his eyes were all but gone. He’d put on weight, and there was the barest suggestion of muscles under his close-fitting t-shirt, instead of just ribs and empty space. Jason wondered what he’d look like without the shirt.

Now that he was thinking about it, Jason realised that he knew remarkably little about his roommate. He didn’t even really know what he’d been to prison for, although he could probably make a pretty good guess.

“I’m just saying, White Goodman gets a lotta shit for turning up at Kate’s house uninvited, and I’m not saying that he doesn’t deserve it, but what about Peter? Why is it okay for _him_ to turn up uninvited? How the hell did he know where she lived? ‘cause honestly for all we know he could be just as stalker-y as White,” Gable was saying. He gesticulated with one hand, and his other curled around a pillow that he was holding against his stomach.

“But Kate liked Peter back,” replied Jason, mostly because it was more interesting to do so than to listen to Gable arguing with no one.

“ _He didn’t know that_. For all he knew, she could’ve been a lesbian. Speaking of which, what is with the ending anyway? Like ‘ _I’m bisexual so I’m gonna make out with my girlfriend but also that guy over there because that’s what bisexuals do_ ’. And like ‘ _my girlfriend’s totally okay with it_ ’. It’s never even explained what the situation between her and that other woman is!”

“I didn’t know you felt so strongly about it.” Somewhere along the line of everything Chad was saying, Jason felt like they were veering too close to awkward territory. He tried to draw a line in the sand with his own words.

“I don’t!” exclaimed Chad, throwing up his gesticulating arm in frustration. “I just… I don’t know… something about it rubs me up the wrong way…”

“Is it…” Jason weighed up his options in his mind for a moment. Then he took a deep breath before crossing the line into what he would’ve referred to ten seconds ago as awkward territory. “Is it because you’re… you know…” It was something Jason had been wondering about since the beginning.

“Because I’m what?” Gable didn’t sound angry, just cautious.

“You know… like…”

“What? Gay? You know you’re allowed to say it, Jason. It’s not a dirty word.”

“So… you are? Gay, I mean.”

“Yeah,” said Gable carefully, “Is that… is that going to be a problem?”

“No, no, of course not,” said Jason, almost too quickly. “I didn’t mean it like that at all. I was just… curious.”

“Huh,” said Gable, staring off unseeingly at the TV, which was now playing the ending of the movie on mute.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-”

“I’m gay. It feels nice to say that out loud.” Jason wanted to say more, but didn’t want to interrupt Gable when he had that look on his face, like he was on the verge of something. “I didn’t exactly – you know – advertise it when I was in prison. You got a five foot eight gay guy in a place like that… it just… wouldn’t’ve been a good idea. But I had friends there, and I wouldn’t have survived otherwise,” Gable’s voice was remarkably steady. “I had friends before I got locked up too, and I guess they accepted me for who I was, but who I was was off his face thirty hours in a day. So what does it matter if they liked me when I don’t like that me anymore?”

Jason tried to nod, tried to offer some gentle reassurance without interrupting him but his heart was pounding in his chest. Gable was opening up to him and he wasn’t sure he was ready to hear it.

“I had a family once. But I guess that’s where this all started. I came out to my parents when I was fifteen and my mom told me to leave and never come back. So I did. I packed up my clothes and my camera and my stupid towels and I left.” Jason was tempted to ask about the towels, but the moment was wrong.

“I spent so many years getting so bitter at my mom for that. When I was sleeping rough on the streets of Minneapolis, my hatred for her kept me warm.” Gable laughed humourlessly. “I found some people who lived like I did. The wrong sort of people it turned out. But they were a family to me, and you know what they say… You can’t choose your family. I ended up getting into heroin in a bad way, and in every way possible. Smoking it, injecting it, selling it. Everything I could.” Gable laughed again, but it sounded more like a cough. “I don’t know why I’m telling you all of this.” He shook his head. “No, that’s a lie. I do know why. I’m telling you because in spite of everything, I wouldn’t change any of this. Not at all.”

“Why?” breathed Jason, transfixed.

“Because if I hadn’t been through what I went through, if I’d have never gone to prison, I never would’ve met your brother, and then I never would’ve met you.”

Chad looked up and met his eyes for the first time since the conversation got serious, imploring him to say something. _Tell him,_ a voice in the back of his head whispered. _Tell him how you feel_ , it screamed.

Jason found himself looking at anything but Gable’s face. At the sight of Gable’s fingers trembling, curled into the pillow that was still clutched against him, Jason lifted his own hand, wanting nothing more than to reach across those oh-so-important inches between them on the couch and hold his hand in his own. Tentatively, he reached out, but a sharp buzzing had him withdrawing quickly.

“Sorry,” said Chad, but his eyes were brighter than Jason had ever seen them. He picked up his phone. “Hello? Wait… _Mojo_?”

A sinking feeling settled in Jason’s stomach as he watched Chad’s facial expressions change.

“Wait, really? … Yeah, okay… Yeah… I suppose I… yeah… I’ll be right there.” Gable hung up the phone and stood, grimacing, and his face was so unfamiliar to Jason in that moment he felt like he’d whacked in the ribs by a crowbar.

“I’m sorry J.J., I’ve got to go. My friend just got out of prison today. I have to make sure he’s okay. He’ll be a lot better off with a familiar face.”

 _This is a bad idea_ , said the voice in the back of Jason’s head. Jason said nothing.

“I’m really sorry. We’ll continue this conversation… later.” Gable was picking up a jacket and making for the door and Jason was still saying nothing.

“I have to go,” said Gable again, and Jason wondered which of them he was trying to convince. And then Gable was gone, leaving Jason with all the things he should’ve said. He swallowed them. Gable was a grown man. He could make his own decisions.

Still, he wished that Gable hadn’t gone. Something about it didn’t sit right with him. And of course, he was right to be concerned.

*

Three days later and Jason was wondering if he’d ever see Chad again. His phone had started going straight to voicemail after the first night, and Jason was ever on the verge of calling the police.

How long before that was the right thing to do? Jason was pretty sure he could officially be called a missing person, since he hadn’t been seen in over twenty-four hours, but what stopped him was the thought that maybe Gable hadn’t turned up because he didn’t want to be found.

Maybe it had gotten too much. Maybe J.J. had pushed too much and Gable had revealed too much of himself and now he was hiding himself away until he was ready. Maybe he and Mojo were out on a three-day bender and he didn’t want to come home to his boring nerdy roommate just yet. Maybe this was exactly what Gable had wanted, what he was itching for, just an excuse to get out and away. The thought made Jason’s heart hurt.

He’d slept perhaps seven hours in total over the last three days, and it was starting to catch up to him. He’d been sent home early from classes, and instructed not to show up at practise that afternoon after sitting through lectures with a glazed over expression, breaking out in a cold sweat and shivering despite the time of year. His college friends thought he was sick, but the only sick he was was sick with nerves.

One look around the apartment that suddenly felt too big when he got home, and the next moment he was hunched over the toilet bowl, throwing up the lunch he’d forced himself to eat. His clothes clung to him with cold sweat. When it was all out of his system, he sat down on the couch and stared at the TV, which he hadn’t bothered to turn on. It seemed wrong to watch TV when for all he knew Gable could be dead in a ditch somewhere. The thought made him feel nauseous again, but he had nothing left to throw up but stomach acid, so he sat very still until the feeling passed.

Now he was home with nothing to do but sit and worry, all the worst case scenarios were flooding his mind and he wished for any way to turn them off, anything that he could’ve possibly done that didn’t involve sitting around feeling sorry and anxious.

Feeling like there was a hummingbird trapped in his ribcage, he went and stood by the door to Gable’s bedroom. Maybe there was something in there that might give him a clue as to where Gable had gone. _Maybe_. His heart clung to the thought as he pushed the door open.

All of Gable’s stuff was still there, so he must’ve been planning on coming back, right? He couldn’t have just skipped out on him, could he? Gable wouldn’t do that. Right? He _couldn’t_ be gone for good. He just couldn’t.

Only… Gable had no more than a backpack of stuff to his name. Who’s to say that he wouldn’t be willing to leave it all behind and go somewhere else?

In his search, J.J. found nothing particularly helpful or incriminating, just some clothes and a few books and a whole stack of DVDs in one corner. Absentmindedly, he thumbed through the DVDs. Every single one of them was an old WWE pay-per-view or documentary.

Huh. It struck J.J. as odd in all the months they’d been living together, the fact that they both liked wrestling had never come up. But then he supposed that Gable didn’t tend to talk about himself that much. Still. It was strange.

He set the top DVD back on the pile and tried to will away the jitters that came with the thought that maybe he and Gable would never get the chance to talk about it.

Neatly folded on the corner of Chad’s bed was his stupid towel with his name embroidered into it. Jason felt his heart twist up in his chest as he unfolded it.

“Gable,” the towel said, and he scrunched it up in his hands, the way he’d seen Chad do hundreds of times when things were bad. He breathed slowly and counted to ten. Uncurling his fist, he lay the towel flat across his palm, writing-side up.

“GABLE,” the towel screamed at him and Jason wanted to scream right back at it. It was a message that resonated with him. When he could hardly bear it any longer, he dropped the towel back on the bed and turned towards the door.

He stopped again at the sight of Chad’s fancy camera resting on the bedside table. He hadn’t taken it with him. Of course he hadn’t, why would he?

 _He couldn’t be gone for good_.

Unable to quite hold himself back, Jason walked over and picked it up. It was surprisingly lightweight. Holding it in his hand felt wrong on a visceral level, when its owner had been missing for days. Stomach churning, he set it down again, but not before noticing that it had been sitting atop a pile of glossy photographs. Curiosity now settling over his careworn nerves, he picked them up and rifled through them.

Some of the photos he recognised from another perspective, some were entirely new to him. The first was a picture of Jason himself, sitting in the park with his head down, but smiling, probably at some corny joke that Chad had just told. There was a picture taken on one of their movie nights, with Chad holding the camera high above his head to get them both in the frame, and Jason covering his face with one hand. Gable smiled at him from the surface of the picture, and Jason trembled as he moved onto the next one.

He remembered this one being taken. He was sat at the kitchen table, glaring down the lens of the camera as he finished off the lasagne Gable was forcing him to eat. The twisting feeling in his chest came back full force when he thought about how Gable had taken care of him that day. He hated himself for never returning the favour.

He put that picture at the bottom of the pile, but the one underneath it only made him feel guiltier. It was another picture of Jason, only this time he was sound asleep on the couch, gym bag dropped carelessly to the floor beside him, shoes still on, body stretched into a position that surely couldn’t have been comfortable, and yet…

J.J. couldn’t help but remember how well he’d slept, and how good it felt to wake up with his shoes off and covered by a blanket. He couldn’t find the words to say how good it felt to be taken care of. It had been a long time since anyone had gone out of their way to make him feel better, to make things easier for him.

He loved his mom, but she’d always been so busy, looking after four sons. When his older brothers started getting into trouble, it became harder and harder for her to make time for him. So Jason had built himself from the ground up. He hit the books, he hit the gym, he worked part-time jobs to help with rent. He worked his ass off to get out of home and go to college and find his own place, but it had left him with few people in his life he cared about. His mom was proud of him, but he hardly saw her anymore.

He had friends at college, he had friends he played football with, he even had friends at work, but he couldn’t help but feel that if he’d disappeared off the face of the earth, hardly any of them would’ve even noticed, let alone cared. He loved his family too, but they were all miles and miles away now.

Gable was different. Gable had somehow managed to change his life from the moment he knocked on his door. Gable had burrowed under his skin and made a home there, and now he was gone, Jason didn’t know if he knew how to breathe without him.

When was the last time someone had taken care of Gable?

 _What if he never comes back?_ Jason’s heart was thrumming in his chest. Most of the rest of the photos were of random things, like household objects or stray animals. There was a bird resting on some telephone wires; Chad’s unmade bed; a bouquet of roses still wrapped in plastic, crumpled up at the bottom of a trashcan in the park.

The next picture made his breath catch in his throat. It was of Gable, in their living room, bridging as beautifully as Jason had ever seen him. He was always so beautiful.

There were a few more of him in various positions, stretching and cartwheeling and standing on his head, all of which must’ve been taken using the timer setting on the camera.

He held up the picture of him bridging again and was reminded of all the mornings he’d awoken to found Gable stretching out and had felt a stirring in his pyjama pants. He couldn’t think about that now though. It had been confusing enough at the time, but now it just felt so wrong to remember it. He couldn’t think about all the ways he’d fantasised about making Gable scream when for all he knew, Gable was dead in a ditch.  

A harsh ringing cut through the air and Jason dropped the photographs. They scattered across the bedroom floor. 

J.J. scrambled for his phone, feeling like he’d been caught in the act. His heart was pounding in his ears as he answered it.

“Hello?”

“Is this Jason Jordan?” An unfamiliar woman’s voice came through the speaker.

“Yes,” he replied breathlessly. The woman said something about a hospital, but he could barely hear her over the blood rushing in his ears.

“What?” he asked, interrupting her.

“We’re calling to let you know that Chad Gable is in the ICU. You’re his emergency contact.” He stayed silent as she gave him all the necessary details, and was out of the front door in less than a minute, the word ‘overdose’ buzzing through his brain. He left the scattered photographs where they were, and didn’t even grab his wallet before slamming the front door behind him.

*

He wouldn’t believe it until he saw him. He’d kept telling himself that as he navigated the short, sharp, winding corridors of the hospital. He couldn’t get his hopes up. Not until he saw him, safe and alive.

Hesitation took hold of Jason as the nurse who’d led him there indicated the room where Chad was being kept. Stepping through that door would make this all real.

Gable was in hospital. He was alive, but he was in hospital. Jason didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. At least, not until he saw him.

Before his thoughts could get the better of him, he pushed the door open and went inside.

There was Gable, laid out on a hospital bed with his eyes closed. He looked so pale, and his hair fell lank and greasy around his face, which was coated in a thin layer of perspiration. Jason felt a stab of rage; cold, white-hot anger penetrated his chest and made his stomach acid churn.

His eyes fell on the only other person in the room. The man was wearing a combination of colours which frankly assaulted Jason’s senses, which only served to make matters worse.

“Yo, you must be J.J., man, Chad would _not_ shut up about you. He kept saying about how you were gonna be so disappointed when you found out about all this. I told him that it’s his life and his roommate can’t tell him what to do. I told him not to let anybody tell him to chill if he don’t wanna. It’s not his fault you ain’t hyped. I’m Mojo Rawley by the-”

Mojo didn’t get to finish his sentence as his head slammed against the wall. Jason had his fists curled into his collar, hoping to hell it hurt as much as it sounded like it did.

“Do you think this is a fucking joke?” he hissed. “I said _do you think this is a fucking joke?_ He was doing so _well_.” His voice rose in pitch. “You couldn’t have just left him alone? You had to drag him back into your stupid little drugged up world. _Not everybody wants to live like you_. Now, he’s in _hospital_ , and all you can say is that _I ain’t hyped enough for you_? Are you _fucking_ serious?” Jason’s voice cracked as he swore.

“Look, man, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-” Mojo started, raising his hands in surrender.

“ _He was doing so well_ ,” Jason yelled again, still not letting go of Mojo’s shirt. “And he’s the best friend I’ve ever had so don’t you dare try to say that I don’t have his best interests at heart. I don’t wanna be _hyped_ , I just want my _friend_ to be _okay_.”

The door swung open and two security guards entered. Jason let go of Mojo and took a step back, trying to remember how to pretend to be calm.

“Sir, we’re gonna have to ask you to leave.”

Jason opened his mouth to… to what? Argue? Concede? Scream? But Mojo beat him to it.

“Nah man, this is my fault. He didn’t do anything wrong. Don’t make him leave. I’ll leave. Okay? Okay,” said Mojo. When no one answered, he began backing out of the door, never taking his eyes off Jason.

The security guards watched him go, before turning back to Jason.

“Don’t go causing any more trouble now. We don’t want to have to remove you by force, but we will, if necessary,” said one of them.

“Of course, of course,” said Jason, feeling as if all the air had been sucked out of his body. When the guards had gone, he turned back to Chad’s bed, and found him sitting upright, staring right back at him.

“Jason,” Chad breathed when their eyes met, and J.J. was by his side in half a second, trying to remember how to take in air. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t ever scare me like that again,” gasped Jason, reaching out to… to what? To touch his face? To stroke his hair? To give him a friendly pat on the head? In the whirlpool of his emotions, he wasn’t even sure what it turned out to be.

“I’m sorry,” Chad repeated, “I’m sorry, I’m-”

J.J. silenced him by wrapping an arm around his head, holding him and listening to his own breathing even out. Maybe he’d regret this later, but with the feeling of Chad’s hair against the skin of his arm, his breath against his neck, just the slightest press of lips against his shoulder through the fabric of his t-shirt, he couldn’t bring himself to regret it right now.

*

“Did you mean what you said back there?” Chad asked him a little later, after the doctors had ruled him fit to be discharged. Jason was driving him home, and a creeping sense of embarrassment had kept them both silent for a long while.

“How much… how much of that did you hear?”

“Um… all of it I guess? I was only pretending to be asleep when you came in. I was just kinda hoping that Mojo would go away. It doesn’t take long for him to get bored. That man has the attention span of a mosquito. And resembles a mosquito in most other ways too, actually.”

J.J. wanted to laugh. He wanted to smile. He wanted to take Gable’s hand the way he nearly did just before everything went wrong, but he couldn’t. Because everything _had_ gone wrong. He couldn’t change that. Gable was smiling at him in a way that was just the wrong side of uncanny valley. His face was pale and his eyes didn’t look like his eyes. He knew if he took Gable’s hand, it would be too sweaty in his. So he couldn’t take it, no matter how much he wanted to.

“I didn’t realise you cared so much,” Gable tried again.

“You’re my… friend,” said Jason. He wasn’t about to let himself make any more mistakes.

The journey proceeded in silence again. Jason kept his eyes on the road, and Chad kept his eyes on the floor. The stakes were too high now. He’d been on the point of opening up to someone else for the first time in years, and he’d gotten burned. Making mistakes was not an option for him anymore.

Later still, when they were home again, Jason left Chad to his own devices. Chad needed help – he didn’t have the money to go to some fancy rehab centre – so Jason promised him that he’d be there for him as long as he needed.

Right now, J.J. had a problem. He had three days’ worth of sleep to catch up on, so he wasn’t emotionally or physically capable of caring for himself, let alone Chad.

He lay down on the couch and stared at the ceiling. Chad needed him. He didn’t know what he was doing. But Chad needed him. Jason had no idea how one was supposed to care for someone in a situation like this. He’d covered the hospital bills and he was all but broke now. He had a job, thank goodness, and college was nearly out for summer, so he’d have more time. Chad needed him. Chad had no one else in the world but absentee parents and deadbeat friends. He needed him.

Jason stood up. He needed to check on Chad. He needed to see that he was okay. Chad might have said he was feeling okay, but seeing was believing.

The door to Chad’s bedroom was half open. Jason made his way towards it but stopped just a foot or so from it. Through the door, he could see Chad. He was standing in the middle of the room with his back to Jason, head down. In his hands were the photographs Jason hadn’t bothered to pick up that afternoon. _Christ, had it really been only a couple of hours since then?_

Jason’s heart was racing, again with that feeling that he’d been caught in the act. This time, it wasn’t a bad feeling. _If I can’t tell him, maybe I can at least show him._

For the first time in days, Jason smiled.

*

It was as if someone had hit the reset button on Chad’s recovery. All the progress he’d made, in prison and since then, was reversed. His jitters were back worse than ever, and there were countless sleepless nights that Jason would just sit with him, and listen to him trying to find words for what the nightmares in his head looked like. Chad told him everything and nothing. There was still so much Jason didn’t know about him.

Chad never found the right words. He’d end up telling him all about some stupid movie or TV show he’d watched when he was a kid. Jason wanted to hold him like he had at the hospital, but Chad was fragile, Chad was recovering, Chad needed a friend, not a boyfriend.

He’d come to terms with the fact that he wanted to be Chad’s boyfriend. That was new.

But there was no time for that now.

Jason took Chad to the park one day, about two weeks after The Incident. He could tell Chad was trying, but Chad looked like he was expending what little energy he had on trying not to shake; he barely spoke at all, for the exertion of it. Every step was an uphill battle. He didn’t even bring his camera with him. The silence weighed heavy on Jason’s heart.

He had managed to find a support group and when Gable had the energy to get out of bed, Jason took him to sessions. It wasn’t much, but at least it was something.

In truth, he had no idea what Gable was going through, so there was only so much he could do. He helped him as best he could, but he still had a job and training and school was just around the corner again.

It was five weeks and two days after Gable overdosed when something finally gave.

“I have to move out.”

Jason sat in silence, staring at the screen of the muted TV. He tried to think about what to say before he said it, but the words wouldn’t arrange themselves in the right order.

“What?” he said quietly. In all honesty, he wasn’t really surprised. Maybe Gable had cottoned on to the fact that he was into him. Maybe he wanted to get out before Jason made a fool out of himself and made things awkward for both of them. He’d been so _close_ to doing exactly that before everything went wrong.

“I can’t do this to you anymore. You let me stay with you out of the goodness of your heart and I’ve long since overstayed my welcome. You’ve gone out of your way to be good to me and I can’t give you anything in return.”

 _You’re all I want in return_ , Jason wanted to say, but didn’t. There were a lot of things he wanted to say, but didn’t.

“I told you I’d pay you back and I swear I still will. But you’ve got a life. I can’t be the thing that’s holding you back. Distracting you from what really matters. I can’t let you make sacrifices for me.”

 _What if I want to? What if I told you that every minute spent with you was worth a thousand sitting through boring lectures or busting my ass endlessly at work?_ Still, no words came out of Jason’s mouth.

“You don’t have the time to be taking care of me along with everything else. Don’t tell me that’s not true. I’ve seen the way you work. I’ve seen the way you drive yourself to exhaustion. I don’t want you to burn out on account of me.”

_You give me the energy I need to get of bed in the morning._

“So… I just wanted to thank you. For putting me up for all this time, even though I couldn’t give you any money for it. And paying my hospital bills. I’ll make sure I pay you back for those too. Don’t sweat it. I’ll be out of your hair in a couple of days.”

 _Can’t you see I’m in love with you?_ is what Jason said in his head. What he said out loud was “Where will you go?”

“I have a friend who I can live with while I’m getting back on my feet. Again. Someone I was friends with before things went downhill for me. Her roommate just went to go live back with his parents, so… She says she can pull some strings at the company she works for to see if she can get me a job.”

Jason’s gut twisted uncomfortably at the thought of Chad living with some woman, some woman who’d help him and provide for him in ways that Jason had tried to do. The nasty little voice in his head was telling him that he had never been good enough for him.

“That’s… great,” was all he could say.

*

Over the next couple of days, as Chad started to move his things out of his apartment, Jason tried to muster the courage to say something else.

Every morning he’d wake up and wish he could tell Chad how beautiful he looked in the mornings. Every time their hands would brush when he helped him shift some of his stuff and Jason would feel it tingling all the way to the bone, he wanted to tell him how he made him feel like no one else in the world had ever done before him. Every time he would look over and find Chad staring right back at him, he’d think _maybe, just maybe_ Gable would be okay with it if he told him he didn’t want him to leave. Maybe he’d be okay with it if he begged him to stay.

Of course, Jason said none of those things. How could he? Gable had made it perfectly clear what he wanted, and it sounded like this Carmella woman was going to be a much better roommate than he ever was. He hadn’t been able to keep Gable from harm before, there was no reason that it would be any different in the future.

There was a small part of him, deep in the back of his mind, whispering that if he’d have stopped Gable from leaving on the night that Mojo Rawley ruined his chances, none of this would’ve happened. If he’d have just told Gable that he thought it was a bad idea for him to go out, maybe Gable would’ve stayed, and maybe he could’ve worked up the courage to tell Gable how he felt.

Another part of him knew that the reason he’d been so angry at Mojo that day in the hospital wasn’t because it was entirely Mojo’s fault Chad had overdosed. It was because Jason knew he wasn’t blameless. If Jason had given Chad a reason to stay, everything could’ve been different.

But he hadn’t, and it wasn’t, and now he had to live with it. He still blamed Mojo for having the worst timing in the world. If Jason had taken just Chad’s hand, then maybe he would’ve stayed.

He should’ve been happy for Gable. Maybe this change of scene was what he needed. Maybe Carmella was what he needed.

Jason tried to comfort himself with that thought when the front door closed behind Gable for the last time in a long time. Anything to make him feel better as he lay down on the couch and silently kicked himself for not saying any of things he should’ve said.

*

Six weeks later, and life for Jason had pretty much returned to normal. At least, things were almost the way they were before Gable had come into his life. There was one major difference: Jason was so _bored_. College had started back up, and he went to all his classes, he went to work, he went to football practice, he went home and went to bed and did the same thing the next day. Every day he wondered if his life had always been so unexciting. Every day was the same.

Except for today. Today, he wasn’t allowed to be unexciting, which was undue pressure more than it was relief from anything. It was better than being bored, though.

Today was his birthday, and his college friends had dragged him out to some bar he’d never voluntarily go to in a million years.

He’d seen Gable just a handful of times since he’d left. Jason had tried so hard to meet up with him regularly for coffee or dinner, but he had a lot less time on his hands than he would’ve hoped, and most days he was too tired to do anything at all after college and practice and work. Besides, he’d kind of got the impression that Gable didn’t really want to speak to him anymore. Maybe Gable had outgrown him already.

The creeping sadness that always came with that thought crawled up his throat, but he knocked it back and washed it down with a mouthful of beer.

He’d never told Gable how he felt because he’d been afraid, and because he hadn’t wanted to ruin the fragile harmony they’d found while living together. Of course, it wouldn’t have made a difference if Chad hadn’t reciprocated his feelings; he left anyway. Jason should’ve told him how he felt while he had the chance. Raising the bottle to his lips again, he downed the rest of his drink.

If he were being honest, Jason would’ve rather been at home. This place was really not his scene. All his friends were drunker than he was, and some of them, at least, were making the token effort to cheer him up. There had been cake, which he hadn’t eaten. There had been shots, which he’d taken reluctantly. There had been presents, which had just left him feeling embarrassed.

Just when Jason was starting to think that it was time to call it a night, the door of the bar opened, and Gable stepped inside. He was holding himself stiffly, hands inside the sleeves of his jacket, and Jason’s heart leapt. It had been three weeks since he’d last seen him. Three long weeks, and the longest time they’d ever been apart since they’d met.

They made eye contact, and Gable started towards him. Jason couldn’t help but notice that he looked good. He was a lot less pale than the last time he’d seen him, less breakable-looking too. His hair didn’t hang lifelessly around his face, and although he had only the hints of a smile playing at his lips, it was much more real than anything Jason had seen in far too long.

“I heard it’s your birthday,” said Gable, smiling just a little bit more.

“You heard right,” said Jason, trying and failing to play it cool. He couldn’t have been happier to see him. He hadn’t had high hopes when he’d sent the invitation.

“I can’t stay long, but I just wanted to give you your present.”

“Present? You didn’t have to-”

“Don’t, J.J., just... just hear me out. It’s less of a present and more of something I owe you,” said Gable, pulling an envelope out of his pocket and pressing it into Jason’s hands. With trembling fingers, Jason opened it, and found a couple of hundred dollar bills inside.

“Chad-”

“I know this isn’t all of it, but think of it as the first instalment. You let me stay with you rent-free even though you weren’t exactly rolling in cash so the very least I can do is pay you back what I owe you. And don’t think I’ve forgotten about those hospital bills either. I’ll pay you back those too.”

“Chad,” Jason finally managed to cut in, “You know…you don’t have to do this right _now_. I’m sure you need the money more than I do.”

“I’ve got a job now. I have a roommate, so rent isn’t that bad. She found me the job. She works for a magazine, and well… they were looking for a photographer, and I like taking pictures. The pay is pretty sweet too. So no, I can live without this money. I have what I need. More importantly, I’ve got a support group, I’m going to therapy sessions, and I’ve been clean for more than two and a half months. I never would’ve got here if it wasn’t for you. Thank you.”

Jason’s body moved before his mind caught up with him and he swept Gable up into an all-encompassing hug. Gable started to laugh as he was lifted off his feet, but wrapped his arms around him all the same.

“I’m so proud of you, man,” Jason said into Gable’s hair. _Why had they never done this before?_ When the hug had gone on far too long to be considered a regular ‘bro-hug’, he set him back on his feet and stepped away, too contented to feel awkward.

“I should go…” said Gable, a little reluctantly, as he cast his eyes around the bar. It hit Jason suddenly that he’d been very stupid. A bar was the worst place for Gable to be right now. “Happy birthday, Jason.” He turned to go.

“Wait,” said Jason, taking Gable’s arm. He glanced around at his friends. They were all too drunk to be paying him any attention. If he left right now, he was sure they wouldn’t even notice. “I’m leaving too. This party isn’t really my thing. Do you… do you wanna go somewhere?”

Gable looked down at where Jason’s hand was loosely clasped around his forearm, and then up at his face. He grinned, and Jason let go.

“Well, it’s your birthday. Who would I be to deny you a good time on your birthday?” Gable chuckled softly and led the way out of the door. Jason hoped he wasn’t imagining the apparent suggestion in Chad’s words. It left him feeling warm, nonetheless. He followed Chad out into to the cold night air.

*

Jason found himself spending the last few minutes of his birthday sitting on a hill, staring out over the city’s skyline. He looked over at the man he was falling in love with, and he couldn’t think of anything he’d rather be doing.

Well. He could think of a couple of things. And they all involved Chad. He tried not to think about them too much, for fear of making things seriously awkward.

“Weren’t you worried,” Jason started, smiling to himself, “Carrying around a couple hundred dollars in cash on the streets at night?”

“I can handle myself,” said Gable, meeting his eyes and smirking.

“I’m sure,” said Jason, only a little sarcastically.

There was a pause, and then, “You know, you didn’t have to ditch your birthday party for me.”

“I’d rather be here with you,” said Jason quietly. He looked out at the view, feeling Chad’s gaze upon his face, but wasn’t quite ready to meet his eyes.

“I…” It was rare for Gable to be at a loss for words, and the fact that Jason had left him speechless felt better than it should have.

“My friends back there… they’re good people. They’re fun to hang out with sometimes. Just, tonight I really wasn’t feeling it. Until you got there.” He took a deep breath. “The last few weeks haven’t been easy. And it’s really, really good to see you. I’ve been… it’s been just the daily grind for me lately. I used to just get up and workout and go to college and work because it was all I knew, you know? I had nothing better to do. And then you came along and I realised that there are better things. And I was lonely before. But not when you came along.” It almost felt like a confession, but Jason had left himself enough room to back away if things went wrong.

“Well… for what it’s worth, I think of the times when I was living with you as some of the happiest times in my life. Even if I did piss you off sometimes by leaving my towels everywhere,” Gable chuckled, and his smile had such an honest quality to it that Jason couldn’t help but ask him the question.

“Man… what is it with the towels?”

The smile fell off Gable’s face, and Jason wanted to take it back. Chad looked out at the skyline, eyebrows drawn together, but he wasn’t frowning. He looked more like he was thinking about what to say next.

“My parents,” he said after a moment, “owned… well, own… this towel manufacturing company. Started out with a little production line, now my dad runs factories in five cities across the states. I was gonna inherit it all someday, until my mom found out that I was gay… The towel that has my name on it… well that one was hand-stitched by my grandma, a long time ago. I was just a kid, I didn’t really care about towels. I didn’t have much in the way of personal affects when I went off to prison but I always held onto a few towels. I like to look at them. They remind me of a time when things were a lot less complicated. When my future was all planned out for me already.”

Not once while he was speaking did he so much as look at Jason, but when he’d finished, he started to shiver.

After a moment’s silence, Jason spoke. “Do you wanna head back to my place? It’s freaking cold out here. We can watch movies.”

“Sure,” said Gable, obviously grateful for the non-sequitur.

They made their way back to Jason’s apartment in companionable silence. Jason felt like he’d just found the Holy Grail and he wasn’t about to give that up. There was no way he was gonna spend his life wondering if Chad felt the same way. He was gonna tell Chad how he felt even if it took him a thousand years. What did he have to lose, anyway?

Jason’s new roommate – hey, he had to pay the bills somehow – was out when they got in, presumably still at the birthday party Jason was currently ditching. Texts and missed calls had started coming in on his phone, mostly of the ‘where the fuck are you’ variety, but he ignored them for the time being.

He put on a DVD that they’d watched a thousand times before, and Gable wasted no time burrowing himself into the couch like it was still his home. A few minutes in, when Jason made some comment about the crappy special effects and received no reply, he glanced over to see that Chad was fast asleep. With a sharp feeling of tenderness that Jason had no idea what to do with, he covered him with the blanket that he kept at the end of the couch.

It struck him suddenly that he’d never actually seen Chad asleep before. The only time he’d come close was at the hospital, but even then, he’d been faking it. Chad had seen him sleeping hundreds of times, due to his inability to stay awake for more than a few minutes once he lay down on the couch. Chad had had a hard enough time sleeping in his own bed at night, let alone anywhere else. He looked so peaceful while he slept.

An annoying buzzing sound had him fishing around for his phone, and he thought it was probably a good idea to let his friends know that he hadn’t been abducted from the bar. A little pissed off that he was being pulled away from Chad to go and stand in the cold again, he went out and stood on the balcony to make a phone call. His roommate, Baron, picked up on the third ring.

“Man where the fuck did you go?” came the words through the phone, only slightly slurred.

“I went home, man.”

“What the fuck, man? It’s your birthday, you can’t just-”

“I went home with someone. Someone I’ve been… into… for a while, actually.”

“Oh… oh… okay, why didn’t you just say so? Have fun, don’t have sex on the couch or you’re paying to have it cleaned.”

“It’s my couch-” Jason protested, but Baron had already hung up.

Trying not to think about Baron’s words, he made his way back into the living room, where Gable was still asleep. He sat himself on the floor by Gable’s head and listened to him breathe for a few moments. He already knew that Gable was beautiful, but nothing had prepared him for how he looked so vulnerable and yet so calm as he slept. Jason couldn’t hold himself back any longer.

With unsteady fingers, he brushed some of Gable’s hair away from his forehead, and then continued to stroke it because it felt good between his fingertips. Taking a deep breath, Jason leant forward and kissed Gable on the forehead. He drew back when he heard a small noise. Gable was stirring.

Chad stretched his arms above his head and let out a low moan before he actually opened his eyes.

“Hey,” he murmured, when he saw Jason sitting beside him.

“Hey,” Jason replied, and steeled himself, before going back to stroking his hair. Chad hummed softly, leaning into his touch in a way that reminded Jason of a cat. He could practically hear him purring as his eyes fell shut again.

“Jason,” he said softly, and Jason slipped his fingertips in just a little bit deeper, massaging his scalp gently. Chad let out a little involuntary noise, and Jason stilled, nervous that he’d crossed an unspoken boundary. Opening his eyes, Chad made a little disgruntled sound.

“Why did you stop?” he asked, and Jason couldn’t think of a good answer, so he leant in and kissed him, full on the lips. Chad made that noise again, this time against his lips and Jason felt it reverberate through his whole body. He pulled back after a second, the tingling feeling overwhelming him.

“Why did you stop?” repeated Chad, and Jason kneeled up to get better leverage as he leaned back in to kiss him again. Chad gripped the back of his head and sat up, pulling Jason up with him and then dragging him back down on top of him as he lay down again in the other direction. Jason tried to hold himself up with one hand to stop himself from crushing Gable, but when Gable wrapped his legs around his waist and pulled him against him, he gave up. He skimmed the fingertips of his now free hand up Gable’s side.

Chad broke away from him with a short curse, and Jason wasted no time going in to kiss his neck. He heard Chad gasping, and knew he must’ve been doing something right, so he kept kissing and biting and sucking until he was sure to have left a hickey. The whole time, Chad was letting out a litany of curses, tightening his legs around his waist and pulling him closer with both arms around his neck. It was more physical contact than Jason had had for a long time.

Chad was holding him as close as he physically could, and when he started to desperately grind up against him, Jason felt like he was about to short-circuit. He was so entranced that he didn’t hear the front door open.

“Man, what did I say about the couch?”

If Gable’s legs hadn’t been firmly holding him in place, Jason was sure he would’ve fallen off the couch.

“Baron.” Jason tried to sit up, but he was in such a tangle of limbs that he had to settle for leaning back as far as he could. Baron stumbled a little towards his own bedroom door.

“Man… what did I say…” he slurred. Jason sighed.

“Chad, this is my new roommate, Baron Corbin. Baron, this is Chad, my old roommate.” Baron staggered over to them and looked at Gable over the back of the couch. If he thought anything about the fact that Jason’s mystery date was a guy, he didn’t mention it.

“Don’t have sex on the couch,” was all he said, before he went into his bedroom to pass out.

Jason looked back down at Chad. He was flushed, though Jason couldn’t tell if it was from embarrassment or exertion. He sat up, and this time, Chad released him.

“We should…” he began, standing up, but faltered when he looked back down at his new found lover on the couch. Gable was lying back, flushed and sweaty, legs apart with one bent up by his body and the other’s foot on the floor, leaving open the space between them, where Jason had just been. He was breathing heavily too, and leaned up on his elbows after a moment or two. 

“Yes?”

“My room… um… I mean… do you want to… uh…”

Gable laughed a little as he stood up, took Jason’s hand in one of his and his belt-loop in the other, and dragged him into the unoccupied bedroom. Jason had never heard a more beautiful sound.

**Author's Note:**

> 'They say that when you sleep your body's at rest  
> I wouldn't know what sleep felt like if I tried my best  
> If polaroids and memories can fade away, so can I...'  
> New Found Glory - I'd Kill To Fall Asleep
> 
> In case anyone was wondering.


End file.
